


Brightroar

by crownedSerpent09



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Westeros, Angst, Crack Treated Seriously, Enemies to Lovers, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Prince Hyunjin, Tourney at Harrenhal, if it's short it's because i started this at 5am and now it's 7, knight jisung
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 05:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18462221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crownedSerpent09/pseuds/crownedSerpent09
Summary: It begins with Jisung doing something stupid: he challenges the Crown Prince to a joust. Then, in true Han Jisung fashion, he does something even stupider: he wins.





	Brightroar

**Author's Note:**

> Some notes about the world:  
> -Set in same time frame as the beginning of ASoIaF/GoT  
> -All of skz are members of the seven great families of Westeros, so  
> -Dorne: Jisung  
> -Stormlands: Changbin and Hyunjin (his father's side)  
> -Westernlands: Hyunjin (his mother's side)  
> -the Vale: Chan  
> -the Reach: Felix and Minho (who is a maester and serves as a part of the King's small council)  
> -Riverlands: Jeongin  
> -the North: Woojin and Seungmin  
> -Jisung and Changbin were sent to the Vale as wards when they were younger, so they grew up with Chan  
> -Seungmin is a ward of House Hwang in King's Landing  
> -Jisung is the son of the second prince of Dorne (the equivalent of Oberyn Martell)  
> -much of the backstory relies on canon ASoIaF/GoT characters, incl. Mad King, the fate of Elia Martell and her children, the Lord of the Stormlands usurping the Iron Throne, the Kingslayer, etc.  
> -although this is not alluded in the story, Hyunjin is often shown in red and gold or in relation to House Park because he is known as the "Prince of Casterly Rock" because of the power of the maternal side of his family and how close he is to them

Chan is able to forgive Jisung for a lot of things; it comes as a side effect of watching him grown up, first alongside Chan and Changbin as a ward of the Vale, then in vigorous training and navigation of the fickle and venomous politics of King’s Landing. But even Chan is ready to hunt Jisung down and bite his head off, so that he’ll no doubt be left like the remains of the Mad King when the current Lord Commander of the Kingsguard was done with him in the penultimate stage of the Siege of King’s Landing.

It always begins with Jisung doing something stupid. He doesn’t mean to; in fact, Han Jisung, proud scion of the unbowed ruling house of Dorne, is considered one of the cleverest minds for his age. Unfortunately, he happens to be subject to the pitfalls of his age as well, including a boisterous temper followed by impetuousness. And so, when Prince Hyunjin, the boy Jisung has been quarrelling with since the moment the two met, challenged the honor of House Han, Jisung challenged him to a joust.

Which would be fine, if Jisung weren’t a member of the Kingsguard, an esteemed lifelong order dedicated to the protection of the King and his family. Which, as it so happens, includes Hyunjin of House Hwang, First of His Name, Prince of Dragonstone.

 

The horses have been led into the ring by two squires, one clad in the red and gold of House Park, the House of Hyunjin’s mother, and one in gold and black, an employee of House Hwang that was placed by the King in service of the Kingsguard members. Two other squires brought out the lances, polished to a sheen with dull bronze surrounding the tip, obstructing the otherwise deadly force behind the weapons. The favors were set, ribbons tied around the base of the lance. Hyunjin’s is green with edges of gold, the colors of “The Little Rose” of Highgarden and Prince Hyunjin’s rumored match, Lee Felix. In contrast, Jisung’s favor is stark grey, taken from “The Young Wolf “ Kim Woojin, who, to add insult to injury, is also the eldest brother of Hyunjin’s best friend and ward of King’s Landing, Kim Seungmin.

Jisung mounts his horse, leveling his lance and shifting his weight into the starting position he knows well. He has nothing to be afraid of. He, Chan, and Changbin are known as the best knights in the land, doing so well in tourneys that the public had taken to calling them the “Dragon Three,” as it’s said the spirit of the beloved, silver-haired, former Prince of Dragonstone has blessed their performances in the competitions. Moreover, Jisung knows he’s one of the best jousters in the Seven Kingdoms, if not  _ the _ best, since Chan and Changbin both prefer the melee. Nothing to be afraid of, except the death sentence on his head if he unseats the Crown Prince and throws him, and the honor of House Hwang, in the gray dust of the Harrenhal grounds.

The knight that is moderating their joust raises the flag. He’s beginning to sweat under the plates of his armor, but the weight of the greatsword at his side is comforting. They’ve given him the side facing the sun, and he tilts his head so that its piercing rays glance over the top of his visor. The flag drops.

Jisung digs his heels into the side of his horse, and they move as one across the ring, charging toward the golden figure ahead of them. He knows his white Kingsguard armor is glinting brilliantly in the sunlight, but for a moment, the gold of Hyunjin’s armor dazzles him….Then Hyunjin’s slender figure, which has been hunched over the neck of his horse with intention, yanks to the right, and his horse skids over. They make one, two, three more passes, Jisung relentless, Hyunjin shifting out of the way at the last second each time. The crowd is at the end of their seats, all the important lords, ladies, and Hyunjin’s Lord Sire himself witnessing the most spectacular event of the most famous tourney in history….The murmurs of the crowd swell with each pass, each time the Crown Prince swerves out of the way… 

They face off again, and Jisung’s mind is completely blank, except for the one task ahead of him. This time, he will not let Hyunjin go. He prepares his mind, conjuring all the possible ways Hyunjin may react, preparing to react accordingly… 

The Prince’s long form approaches, thundering forward just as he’s done the past four times. But Jisung can see the way he’s gripping his reins, he’s going to dodge again… 

And apparently, Hyunjin’s Lord Sire can see as well, as when the Prince looks up, for a brief fraction of a second, guided by some supernatural force to take in his father’s face, he’s met with an expression grim disappointment, one that he’s all too familiar with….

And Hyunjin falters. And his horse’s feet trip, stumbling one over another, and Han Jisung is coming up, tip of his lance looping elegantly in the gap between the Prince’s right arm and torso, barely coming contact with the him at all… 

And Prince Hyunjin sails through the air and lands crumpled in the dust.

The roar of the crowd is deafening. Jisung allows himself one moment, one brief instance to swell in the glory and pride of his accomplishment, before reality slams back into him with the force of a thousand lances.

Hwang Hyunjin gets up and draws his sword. His shining golden armor is dented on one side and dirtied by the gray dust, and his hand is trembling has he holds his greatsword. “Brother,” it’s called, as the only child Hyunjin had always wanted a companion. He snarls something about taking back his honor.

Jisung looks, fruitlessly, in the King’s direction. The man who appointed fifteen-year-old Jisung to the Kingsguard, the youngest since the Lord Commander Kingslayer himself; who’s treated Jisung like a son all the years he’s served in King’s Landing, better than his own son; the man’s expression is grim, but there is a certain resolve when looking at his birth son, an anticipation, and Jisung knew that the only way this man can restore honor to his House is by sentencing Jisung to death.

Jisung looks toward Chan and Changbin, and he hopes that they can see, even when he is being stubborn to the end, that he’s sorry for all the grief he’s cost them. They’d told him not to go, to forfeit the match, to save his own life, but he hadn’t listened. It wasn’t just about his own honor, did they know? The public didn’t, most assuming Jisung had brought this on himself out of pride and arrogance, even in the face of the third most powerful man in Westeros, but it was their opinions that mattered. Did they know that Jisung hadn’t wanted to leave them?

(“Don’t do it, Jisung.”

“I have to.”

“No, you don’t. Call it off; this is an order.” Chan’s voice was steel, far harder than Changbin, but his eyes were full of pain as well.

“What did he say to you? I’ll talk to him about it, get him to apologize…” Now Changbin was needling, naming impossibilities in order to convince Jisung to forfeit.

“He said Queen Rhaenys should have never brought my family into Westeros. That none of us have any place in King’s Landing.”

Silence. They knew, how could they not? They’ve grown up with Jisung. But more importantly, they grew up in a time where all of their fathers overthrew a Mad King and slaughtered his daughter-in-law and dashed the heads of his grandchildren on the blades of the Iron Throne.

“Of course, it smarted a bit, coming from him. Because isn’t he standing in the exact place that should have been my cousins’?”)

Brightroar is cool in his hands, the Valyrian steel shining silver in the sunlight, supporting the illuminating brilliance of his white Kingsguard armor. The name is that of the lost ancestral greatsword of House Park; since the legendary greatsword has been lost for centuries, the King allowed—insisted even—that Jisung use the name for his own sword, a name that should have been Hyunjin’s to use. It was just another thing Jisung had taken back from Hyunjin.

The swords met in a ringing clash, Valyrian steel against Valyrian steel. Jisung steps and parries, stabs and slices, dancing the steps he’s danced thousands of times before. But somehow, Hyunjin’s always been the better dancer, if not the greatest swordsman, and Jisung knows he’s meant to lose. When he duels his greatest enemy, heavy swords flashing and twirling through the air, he realizes there’s something different, something visceral and impassioned and triumphant and desperate and  _ alive _ in the way Hyunjin is fighting him, something that Jisung’s never seen in when Hyunjin duels his trainers in lessons, or even Changbin when he wants some advanced practice with his cousin in the Kingsguard. He locks eyes with the prince through the slits in their visors, and he gets distracted, lost in the deep pools for a moment.

With a heavy crash, he’s brought to his knees by a well-placed kick on the Crown Prince’s part, and then there’s a sword pointing at his heart.

Jisung stares down at the greatsword underneath his chin. He can see his reflection in its surface and hear Hyunjin lowering himself to Jisung’s level in order to get closer. Theirs was always an enmity that hit too close to home, struck where it hurt.

Hyunjin moves the tip of his sword under Jisung’s chin, and for a split second, Jisung is tempted to hurl himself onto the blade so that he doesn’t have to see Hyunjin’s no-doubt triumphant look before dying. Instead, he holds back his impulse, and lets the prince tip his chin up to look him in the eyes.

What happens next shocks Jisung to the point of incomprehension. It takes a few moments for him to register the warm lips on his, the dead silence of the crowd around them, and the prince’s wide-eyed look of surprise.

Jisung drops his sword in the dirt and reaches up with both hands to cup Hyunjin’s face in order to bring him into a deeper, slower kiss. Hyunjin’s wide-eyed expression doesn’t budge, but his own sword slips from his slack fingers with a clang as it lands on Brightroar. Jisung smiles into the kiss, pulling away to draw himself to his full height before sinking into a deep bow.

“My apologies for any slight on your honor, Your Grace, and I hope I’ve met all your demands, whether they be in war or love. To further make amends, I intend to show that I hold no animosity towards you or your House, but rather complete love and devotion. With that, I crown you, Hwang Hyunjin, Prince of Dragonstone, as this tourney’s Queen of Love and Beauty.”

The hosts of tourneys Han Jisung attends generally know to prepare a crown of his choice of flowers, knowing that there is a high likelihood of the Kingsguard member becoming the victor and being able to crown the Queen of Love and Beauty. And indeed, an inlaid box is brought down by a Harrenhal squire, who opens it to reveal the crown Prince Hyunjin will wear: a crown of desert lilies, the flowers of Dorne.

**Author's Note:**

> okay so I saw this tumblr post  
> "barduils:  
> what if 🤔 you defeated me in battle 😔 and when you tilted my head up with your blade beneath my chin 🗡️ we accidentally kissed 💋😳  
> 04.13.2019"  
> and thought "what if I wrote it for hyunsung?" and i actually did the absolute madman anyway this was supposed to be a joke but i made it way too serious
> 
> ((Also if it wasn’t clear, the reason jisung is setting himself up for trouble by challenging hyunjin is because he either loses on purpose, which would be a slight against his honor AND hyunjin’s as he’s shown himself to be so much better than hyunjin at jousting that everyone will know he’s doing it on purpose, or he wins and hyunjin has to challenge him to a duel (bc one doesn’t simply dishonor the crown prince like that). if he fights hyunjin in a duel that’ll be endangering the prince’s life, which he has sworn against doing as kingsguard, and the punishment will probably be death or exile.))
> 
> hope y'all liked it anyway


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